Plugin Contributor
bcrodua
(@bcrodua)
Hi @trivikramredx
Thanks for reaching out.
It sounds like the settings may not be saving correctly, or another plugin may be interfering with the scheduler.
Could you please try again and Go to Settings > UpdraftPlus Backups > Settings tab, Re-select your desired schedule (e.g., Files backup schedule: Fortnightly) and Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page. If possible temporarily deactivate all other plugin except UpdraftPlus.
Also, could you please send us a copy of your most recent backup log? You can find this in the Existing Backups tab by clicking the “View Log” link next to the most recent backup.
This will help us better understand what’s going on behind the scenes.
Kind regards,
Bryle
Ron
(@amberianer)
I have the same problem, that the schedulded backups are not working on two of my sites.
I hope it is ok to use this thread.
On three of my other sites the schedulded backups are working.
All the sites are on the same webhosting-package and same server.
So it should has nothing do to with server-configurations.
I already deleted all settings and set up the backup options new.
In the plugin-dashboard of site 1 the next scheduled backup shows a date in the past.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/j01ik4g7d39mb4yapa4u2/Bildschirmfoto-2025-07-22-um-13.27.32.png?rlkey=09k3wxiqserf91vgw268nr1ka&dl=0
Here my logfile from the last manual backup.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fks1cs6umubkpa8e8gdl3/log.4f9fed7d3d9c.txt?rlkey=lqt87pqrvq86g7d53ohrh89r2&dl=0
Plugin Contributor
bcrodua
(@bcrodua)
Hi @amberianer
Thanks for the details and for sharing the screenshot and log.
Please try installing the WP Crontrol plugin to check if WordPress scheduled tasks (cron jobs) are working correctly. Sometimes, cron can get stuck or fail to trigger, which may cause scheduled backups to not run.
Let us know what you find, and we’ll be happy to assist further!
Best Wishes,
Bryle
@bcrodua Apologies for the late reply, I have saved the changes multiple times, I do have prior experience with the plugin as I use the plugin on the same host in a similar fashion.
Unfortuantely this instance seems to be the only one that isnt following the expected timeline. I have checked WPCrontrol – the only cron job related to updraft is see is ‘updraftplus_clean_temporary_files’; no errors elsewhere.
Is there a email that I can use to privately share logs and screenshots. Also an issue for me is I have to wait till the next day to see if the settings have taken affect; as UI still shows the value as ‘Fortnightly’
Thanks for the plugin and the effort to help me.
Ron
(@amberianer)
Plugin Contributor
bcrodua
(@bcrodua)
Hi Ron,
Thanks for your update and for the screenshot.
From the screenshot, we can see that the scheduled backup tasks (updraft_backup, updraft_backup_database, and updraftplus_clean_temporary_files) have not been running as expected — the next scheduled run is overdue by several weeks.
This usually happens when the WordPress cron system (WP-Cron) is not firing correctly. This can be caused by:
- Low traffic on the site (since WP-Cron only runs on page visits)
- A conflict or disabled cron system
- Server configuration that blocks scheduled tasks
Ensure WP-Cron is enabled:
Check your wp-config.php file and make sure this line does not exist:
define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);
Please check this FAQ https://teamupdraft.com/documentation/updraftplus/topics/backing-up/troubleshooting/why-am-i-getting-warnings-about-my-site-not-having-enough-visitors/?nab=1 for ways to resolve issue.
Best regards,
Bryle
Ron
(@amberianer)
Hello Bryle,
thank you for helping.
- Ensure WP-Cron is enabled: There is no entry “define(‘DISABLE_WP_CRON’, true);” in wp-config.php
- Low traffic on the site: This site has 600 visitors per month. The other sites, where updraft works fine, have less visitors.
- Server configuration that blocks scheduled tasks: As I mentioned before, all pages are on the same server and are managed within the same package, so there cannot be different server configurations for this page
- A conflict or disabled cron system: What would you suggest?
-
This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by
Ron.
Plugin Contributor
bcrodua
(@bcrodua)
Hi @amberianer
Thanks for the update.
We suggest signing up with a facility like UptimeRobot, Pingdom, or Easy Cron to get more automated visits to your website. This can help ensure scheduled tasks like backups are triggered consistently.
Best Regards,
Bryle
Ron
(@amberianer)
Hello Bryle,
so you mean, that your plugin is not working, because I have to less site-visitors?
If this is the reason, why the plugin works on my other sites, where I have only 100-200 visits per month?
-
This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by Ron.
Ron
(@amberianer)
I sent a request to my hosting provider. Here is the answer from the support:
“According to today’s access log, the wp-cron.php is being triggered regularly by WordPress itself and is executed completely (HTTP status 200). This means there is no interruption during execution.
Also, there should be no general issue, since all accounts are hosted on the same server and would therefore be affected as well.”
Hello and thank you for this amazing plug-in. I too am having an odd problem with the scheduling. There are 5 sites on a VPS. 3 site work fine in terms of the generation and deletion of backups. 2 sites do not as the backups are created as scheduled but on these 2 sites the backups are never deleted. I just changed the schedule for the 2 sites so we will see if that resolves the problem. I will report back as to whether the reset of the schedule helps resolve the problem. I should add that the 2 sites that are malfunctioning don’t see much traffic. But site number 5 has less traffic than these 2 but backup scheduling works fine. More information as I gather it.
Interesting – the backups are still stacking up in the 2 problematic sites as if cron didn’t run. So I have installed a cron job to execute wp-cron.php at 2:30 am every day. Hopefully that will trigger the scheduled task to remove the old backups.
Plugin Contributor
bcrodua
(@bcrodua)
Hi @ahawtin
hanks for the update and for the kind words!
It does sound like the scheduled deletion task (part of the WordPress cron system) isn’t being reliably triggered on those two sites. Since you mentioned they don’t get much traffic, it’s possible that the wp-cron.php isn’t firing consistently — WordPress only triggers scheduled tasks when the site is visited.
Your approach of adding a real cron job to call wp-cron.php is a good one and should help. Additionally, you might consider signing up for a free uptime monitoring service like UptimeRobot, Pingdom, or EasyCron to simulate regular site visits and keep scheduled tasks running more smoothly.
Best regards,
Bryle
Hello Bryle,
The cron ran last night as expected but didn’t help. I then realized that the scheduled task was running properly as the back-up was created as planned. So I had a read of your log and the difficulty is now clear:
0000.999 (0) Prune old backups from local store: nothing to do, since the user disabled local deletion and we are using local backups
This would of course explain why these 2 sites don’t clear old back-up while the other do. So I searched all the tabs trying to find this setting but couldn’t. Any suggestions?
Thanks so much. This is a great plug-in. One of the best.
Hi,
It looks to me that your scheduler is not working, can you add the following to your wp-config to activate the alternate one:
define(‘ALTERNATE_WP_CRON’, true);
